Leacht, Oileán Máisean, Co. Galway
Co. Galway |
Holy Sites & Wells
On the small Connemara island of Oileán Máisean, within the sheltered interior of an early Christian enclosure, sits a low rectangular cairn of granite that belongs to a category of monument easy to overlook and harder to explain.
A leacht is a type of commemorative or devotional stone structure, typically associated with early medieval religious sites in Ireland, and this one measures roughly 3.2 metres east to west and 2 metres north to south, rising to about a metre at its highest point. Its four corners were once marked by larger upright boulders, though these have since collapsed or shifted, and the sides are partially spread at the base, with loose stone scattered around it. The east and south faces survive in the best condition. It sits about 2 metres from the entrance to the enclosure, placing it in close physical relationship with an early Christian church nearby.
What makes the monument particularly layered is the cluster of objects associated with it. A cross-slab sits on the leacht's western end, and a second cross-slab, catalogued separately, is also associated with the structure. At its south-western corner, lying directly on the ground, is a bullaun stone fitted with a lid; a bullaun is a boulder with one or more rounded depressions, often interpreted as having held water used in ritual or healing contexts. When the site was visited in August 1984, a small subcircular granite boulder, roughly 40 by 30 centimetres, was also present on the leacht near its south-eastern corner. By some point after that visit it had been moved, and it now rests on the ground about 1.5 metres to the south. Its original purpose is uncertain, but it may belong to the tradition of praying stones or cursing stones, objects turned or manipulated during devotional acts. A comparable example was noted by Bigger in 1896 on the nearby pilgrimage island of Cruach na Cara, better known as St Mac Dara's Island, suggesting the practice had a regional currency across these Atlantic parishes.